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REALbasic News Archives
May 2005
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May 21, 2005
Done With Finals
Hello my fine feathered friends! I've just finished up my second year of college! Horray! Naturally the downtime was due to crazy end-of-the-semester projects, last minute midterms, and finals, and the obligatory studying for all of them. For the next several months the REALbasic section here should be regularly posted (as I'm sure you and Scott are happy to hear!). REALbasic 2005 is on the horizon so look forward to tutorials on how to use some of the new features in it, like the new d... OOPS! Can't talk about that! Sorry, you'll just have to wait. In the mean time, here's some of the stuff that's been going on lately. -- Seth
REAL Software News
Announcing the New Rapid Release Schedule
REAL Software announced the Rapid Release schedule they plan to use for future releases of REALbasic starting with REALbasic 2005. The difference is, updates that include new features as well as bug fixes will be released every 90 days or so instead of the 6 to 12 months that has been typical in the past. All REALbasic 2005 licenses and upgrades (from all versions of REALbasic) include six months of these updates for free. When the six-month update period ends, it may be renewed in 12-month increments. Annual update renewals are priced at $49.95 for Standard Edition and $199.95 for Professional Edition. This is a great program. Speaking of REALbasic 2005...
REALbasic 2005 Info Update
Geoff Pearlman posted some info on REALbasic 2005 a little while ago, letting the community know why it hasn't shipped yet. Here's what Geoff had to say:
"Ninety days ago, we announced via a press release that REALbasic 2005 would ship in ninety days. That ninety day window closes today and as you can see, we are not yet shipping. Why?
"When we made that announcement we were reasonably confident that we would be shipping by now. However, we believe that you would rather have us spend some extra time to produce a higher quality product than ship based on an estimated date chosen three months ago.
"REALbasic 2005 represents the most significant upgrade to REALbasic ever. It also represents the most significant amount of effort we have ever put into any single release. Your patience is appreciated while we put the finishing touches on this most important release. We will be shipping soon and I'm confident you'll see that it was worth the wait."
REAL Software Acquires Database Technology from SQLabs
Although slightly belated (by two weeks) this is a very interesting piece of news as well. REAL Software acquired SQLite-based database technology developed by SQLabs of San Diego, California. This technology includes SQLitePlugInPro for REALbasic and SQLiteServer. SQLitePlugInPro is a popular database plugin that enables development of single-user database applications. SQLiteServer is a SQLite-based database server. "The single-user database engine will be included in an upcoming release of REALbasic. Plans for the database server will be announced later this year." (I wonder which release that could be? Maybe 2005? We'll see. You never know with software.)
Made With REALbasic
Power Game Factory
Sawblade Software released Power Game Factory, innovative new software for creating side scrolling action games for the Macintosh. Featuring a polished graphical user interface, Power Game Factory is capable of producing games similar to many of the most highly regarded console video games of the past two decades, but with far superior graphics and sounds. Best of all, no programming is required. Power Game Factory is made with REALbasic from REAL Software, Inc.
May 4, 2005
REALbasic Stuff
Spotlight and Metadata Libraries
The Spotlight library allows you to search using Spotlight and retrieve results, access the Spotlight Schema, display the standard Spotlight search window, and access the indexed metadata attributes on arbitrary files. It gives you access to every feature of Spotlight except for live-updates and sub-queries (both of which will come in a later release). The library includes extensive documentation and a cool demo application. The library has also been implemented in an extremely easy to use fashion, simplifying the Spotlight API, and automatically converting between Core Foundation types and REALbasic types. The Metadata library allows you to access the extended attributes system introduced in Tiger. It's implemented as an extension to the folderitem class, and works similarly to a dictionary. The Metadata library also includes extensive documentation and a demo program. Both libraries require Tiger, and also require your application to be built as a Mach-O library.
On-Target Reports v4.1
On-Target Reports 4.1 Professional can generate reports from most popular databases, including FrontBase, mySQL, OpenBase, Oracle, postgreSQL, PrimeBase, REALDatabase, REALDatabase - 5.5, SQLite, SQLite Server, Sybase ASE and Valentina. There is also support for any ODBC compliant data source. On-Target Reports 4.1 Professional provides numerous fixes as well as two new features. SQLite Server is now supported as a data source. On-Target Reports Professional is available for Windows and Mac OS X with a direct price of $199.
MenuItem Tutorial from Aaron Ballman
Aaron Ballman (a REAL Software engineer who works on REALbasic) has created another fine tutorial, this time on MenuItems. Aaron writes: "If you've ever found yourself wanting to use a dynamic menu in your application (such as an Open Recent or Window menu), then you should check out this short tutorial. It covers the new MenuItem API (introduced in REALbasic 5.0) and demonstrates how to properly use it. If you're used to using the old-style MenuItem arrays, you should also check this out because it's a much cleaner solution than what you're used to."
GraphPro v2.1 - Graphing Classes For REALbasic
GraphPro is a flicker-free graphing class for REALbasic. It is cross-platform, working on Mac OS 9, Mac OS X, Windows, and now Linux. GraphPro costs $75 (which includes the source code). For a detailed list of features (far too many to list here) see the GraphPro website. New in 2.1 are a bug fix, change, and now new examples and cursors.
Made With REALbasic
WebDesign v2.6.1
WebDesign is a professional web authoring package offering a powerful and easy to use text editor combined with a fully featured Site Manager to help keep your web sites up to date and organized. WebDesign includes built in support for HTML, XHTML, Cascading Style Sheets, PHP, JavaScript, ASP, XML and VBScript. WebDesign 2.6.1 is a maintenance update to the professional HTML source code editor. It adds the ability to set the syntax highlighting colors within the Preferences instead of editing an external file. It also brings support for Tiger, Apple's recently released operating system. The full version of WebDesign can be purchased for $29.95 and includes one year free of web hosting.
Metropolis v1.0
Metropolis is website & content management software that allows you to define your page layout once, and start adding pages without ever again having to worry about how the page looks. Metropolis runs rings around similar products like CityDesk, by being between a few hundred and several thousand times faster, and, thanks to its built-in scripting language "MetroScript", infinitely more powerful. MetroScript is a full blown scripting language, based on RealBasic's RBScript, that can be used in a php-like syntax in your templates. Metropolis can be downloaded freely, so you can test drive the product and see if it fits your needs before actually having to buy.
Front End Digital Media Player v2.1
Front End Digital Media Player is a free play list based play back and presentation application for QuickTime supported digital media featuring: Full screen presentation, fast and slow motion directional playback. Mark in and out points to play only certain parts of sounds and movies. Create, save and load play lists of movies sound, music and images. New and improved interface remembers your bass and treble and other settings. Front End Digital Media Player is available for Mac Os X, Mac Classic, and Windows and is made with REALbasic from REAL Software, Inc.
Revolver Mail 2005
Revolver Mail is a well-developed alternative mail reader for Mac and Windows users. Many programs can collect data but more important is how fast they can find it again. Revolver offers new search comfort providing answers with each key touch. Revolver links data: For example emails, appointments and bills linked to projects. With the “History” function you get an overview of all transactions belonging to a project or an address. Revolver stresses security and easy with a great interface and comes in four versions: Free, Pro, Office, and Office Pro.
DiscBlaze v5.0
DiscBlaze, from Radical Breeze, is an easy-to-use application for burning data to CDs and DVDs. Not only can it burn data, it can burn audio CDs from any QuickTime compatible audio format, multiple sessions to the same CD, Toast or ISO disc image files, and whole whole lot more. Version 5.0 brings the ability to burn UDF formated CDs and DVDs, improved Audio CD burning and support for Mac OS X 10.4 "Tiger." DiscBlaze costs $29.95 and is available for Mac OS X 10.3 and 10.4.
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